June 5, 2025 • 48 mins
By now, most people know The Simpsons is the longest-running primetime scripted show in American TV history. And for fans of the show (and those engaged in pop culture generally) there are many examples of the iconic show correctly prediction the future, including the worlds of politics and sports. Today Action Network hosts Chad Millman and Simon Hunter welcome on two entertainment veterans and brother with deep ties to the show. Joel Cohen has worked on the show for decades and has written nearly 40 episodes. His brother Robert Cohen wrote Flaming Moe's, one of the show's most beloved episodes, and is a veteran of many successful Hollywood writers rooms. Together the group discusses the passionate, often ridiculous gambling culture among TV writers, how the show does or does not predict the future, and so much more. #Volume #herd
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to the Favorites, the podcast part of the Volume
Podcast Network. I am Chad Millman of the Action Network Today.
I'm joined as always by my cost my companion, my
compadre might BFF professional better Signmon Hunter els Imon.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Chad, what a show we have today, brother dude.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We got very special guests for a very special show.
We like to figure out on this show what is
going to happen in the future. I don't think any
medium has been better at predicting what is going to
(00:54):
happen in the future than The Simpsons, which now only
is that the longest running scripted primetime show in American
television history, it has been epically successful in predicting the
most outrageous things, from voting scandals, which one of our
(01:18):
guests predicted many many years ago, to Olympic curling gold,
whether it's sports, whether it's politics, whether it's polluted waters
and three eyed fishes. The Simpsons have been predicting it
for years, so I wanted to dig in on how
(01:41):
they do it. Here to discuss it. Two fellas happen
to be brothers. Both have worked on The Simpsons, one
still does. They are industry veterans, Canadian Royalty, one of
them has He's directed one of the best documentaries on
(02:03):
Canadian sense of humor in history. It's a pretty long list,
but they are fantastic looking duo. Rob Cone is a
close buddy. He's been writing and directing his way through
Hollywood for years on some of the biggest and best
shows you've all watched, including The Simpsons, Wonder Years, Big Bang,
my personal favorite, Somebody Somewhere, which made every top ten
(02:25):
list of the best shows last year. He also won
an Emmy for his work on The Ben Stiller Show.
If you're a Simpson super fan, he was the screenwriter
of one of the shows most beloved episode, Flaming Mo's
season three. His brother, Joel has been with The Simpsons
for almost thirty years. He's an executive producer of the show.
(02:48):
He's written nearly forty episodes, some of which we are
going to talk about today because they presaged some of
the most outrageous moments literally in history, including a very
special ar tree House of Horrors episode that are still
relevant today. Like me, Joel is an author, which is
the hardest thing to do, much harder than a long
(03:11):
successful career in Hollywood. His delightful book How to Lose
a Marathon is available wherever books are sold. The Boys,
the Coen Brothers have a new animated show. It's Hilarious
Super Team Canada, produced with Will Arnette. He also does
a podcast. People may have heard of it. It's available
on CraveTV and on YouTube. Fellas, it's been a long preamble,
(03:36):
I apologize, but you've been around forever and there's a
lot of stuff you've been doing, so welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Rob When the Way to the World has got you
down and you want to end your life, bills to pay,
a dead end job, and problems with the wife, but
don't throw in the tower, because there's a place right
down the block where you can drink your misery away.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
That flame.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
When the.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Conform you by happiness, it is just a flaming go away.
Happiness is just a flaming move away.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Say hello, Hello, Chad, this is the sound of my
impressed voice.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Thank you, Joel, can you be equally impressed?
Speaker 6 (04:35):
It would be hard to match that level of enthusiasm,
but hello as well.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
All right, I got to ask, first off, Joel, you've
been there forever at this point, why does this keep happening?
How do you guys continue to predict the future.
Speaker 6 (04:52):
We're getting into it right now.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Let's just do it.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Let's just want to hear it. Let me tell everyone
the sad truth, and then I will try to salvage
it with a little bit of hope at the end.
How about that. So most of the time when people
say Simpsons predicted it, what has happened is the Simpsons
are a bunch of hacks and we have merely reported
on something that has already happened. But the world travels
(05:15):
in cycles. So one of the things that people talk
about recently or semi recently is Simpsons predicted COVID. And
they show this clip that was aired after SARS. If
you guys remember Stars, one of our great viruses, and
we did a joke on the show where like the
news caster Kent Brockman is saying this Asian flu blah
blah blah blah blah. So people show that clip and
(05:37):
they're like, Simpsons predicted COVID. In fact, we are like
probably three years after the fact of SARS and just
doing it a sort of a joke or a take
on SARS. So a lot of times it's just that
cycle of life that looks like there's a prediction. Add
to that now the ability of everybody in the world
to use AI and crappy animation and people are creating
(05:59):
memes and little video clips that look like a prediction after,
of course the fact that it happened. The third thing
I'll throw on the bummer pile is like, for example,
there was these horrific fires in Los Angeles. There's all
these things. Simpsons predicted the fire. Well, we have eight
hundred episodes. Shockingly, we have had one with a fire
in it, so you can find a clip of a
(06:19):
fire and then say Simpsons brick at the fire. So
those are the bumbers. The good news is the Dave
I started the day after this aired. But one of
our writers, Dan Graney, who Rob knows certainly, was writing
an episode and he had to think of it was
in the future. I forget the name of the episode,
but it's in the future when Lisa becomes president and
replaces the former president and had to name who the
(06:40):
president was. Dan's first idea was President Depp because he thought, oh,
Johnny Depp. Then he thought, no, no, that's too viable. It
has to be the most ridiculous, idiotic name you could
ever put in there, So he chose President Trump, which
that was in two thousand that aired, So that was
a clear prediction. And as you've mentioned with all the
last thing, I say, with eight hundred episodes, we occasionally
(07:02):
do stuff that then does prove prescient, like we've predicted
Olympic curling success and World Cup scores and Super Bowl teams,
et cetera. So long winded answer to say, often it's
either super laziness and a little bit of luck.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Well, look, I know Simon is a he's a Halloween
special lover. And Joel, that's one of your many specialties.
The sports angle on this and I know someone wants
to ask about it because it's also contains one of
the greatest and most relevant prescient predictions that has happened
(07:40):
in The Simpsons. But the sports angle is fascinating to
me because everyone in that room is clearly a sports fan,
and you guys have predicted so many things. You know,
as I used to run USP in the magazine and
in twenty thirteen, I think you guys did FIFA corruption
and you had a French version of ESP in the
(08:02):
magazine that had the cover of you know, French of
a FIFA corruption and a year later that's happening, right,
And so where does the sports fandom come in to
all this?
Speaker 6 (08:17):
Tons and tons of sports fans. I wouldn'tay everybody's a
sports fan, but it's a lot of guys with nothing better,
didn't look at their phones all day. So there are
a lot of sports fans. And then of course sports,
just like anything else in society, trickles in for predictions.
But like FIFA corruption, I probably could have told you
in nineteen eighty three that there was FIFA corruption, right,
(08:38):
so that we did a story about it is not
so shocking. So Anya, we just do a lot of
sports episodes. I just had an episode on a couple
weeks ago that sort of mirrored the Otani betting scandal.
I don't know if you guys heard about that. It
wasn't covered very much in the media, but so we
had a Macedonian baseball player who gets corrupted and starts
betting on sports as well. So that was on a
few weeks ago. You know, So lots and lots of
(09:01):
sports fans. I guess is a half answer to the
full question, Senate, would you like to yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Rob it?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Rob In my mind you grew up in the greatest
generation of comedy and friend, not talking to Marria, I'm
talking Canadian comedy. You had Jim Carrey nor McDonald and
even before that. You know, it's a bunch of legends
where you know more in short, to me, one of
the greatest comedic minds ever. What made that little pocket
(09:31):
of Canadians so fucking funny? It's like crazy, like even
all these years later, like I go back and I
watch old norm it's so hard for comedy to hold
up thirty years later. And that's how you know these
people are away out of their time, like you're a
part of it, Like you are part of this group
of people that put themselves out there in a unique way.
(09:52):
What do you think makes Canada produce these heavyweight comedy styles.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Well, you're giving me if there's more than a one
hundred percent, you're giving me more than that credit or
something that I really didn't do, because I agree with you.
You know, every country mostly has their own unique sense
of humor. And obviously if you're in the United States
or Britain or Canada, it's more mainstream just because of
(10:18):
the way they make TV shows. But I do agree
with you. It's Canada, you know, for its relatively small population,
has generated these hitters in comedy forever. And there's a
million theories, but I think it's really because we're stuck
between England and the United States, and we are watching
(10:39):
the US and observing them, and we're sort of watching
Britain and we know we're kind of British, kind of American,
but we're also naval gazers to a degree, and that
internalized thought process creates this weird mish mash that is
this observational comedy. And there's no real theory, but I
(11:01):
will say I agree with you. I mean, to me,
SCTV is the greatest sketch show and sketch group of
all time, and Python is a very very tight tie
with them, and then everything else is a big drop off.
They're good, but they're never going to be that level.
And I think so much of it is just being
insane because you have terrible weather and you're stuck inside
(11:22):
and you're envious of your neighbors and you just kind
of get this distorted, passive, aggressive style of comedy. So
I think that's why Canada has created that. And then
you have people like Jim Carrey, who is obviously brilliant,
or Martin Shorter, any of the STTV people that when
they go to the States, they're viewed as these exotic,
(11:44):
weird aliens that happen to live on the land mask
that's connected to you. But their view on things is
so different and they're great mimics. And I think that's
what's led to the Canadian style of comedy.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
And I love the old theory of the cold and
the harsh weather, just like in England. When you come
over here, it makes you need to laugh about life.
And that's why, you know, I always joke I go
back and visit family just about how even a local
guy at the pub could be the funniest person you've
ever met in your entire life when I go back
to England. And I've had that with Canadians, Like I've
had a lot of friends who've come down here and
(12:19):
I feel like, what you're talking about, they just don't know.
They're just so different, especially to Americans, even though you
know they are not even that far away. And yeah,
I love you know, Mike Myers talks about it. Where
you know Canadians they'll be talking and be like oh,
and he died the other day, so sad, and it's
just like really funny, but they don't know they're being funny.
There's you know, throw these type of things in and yeah,
(12:40):
for someone like you, I just thought it was interesting
where you really grew up in the perfect.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Era of that type of comedy.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And yeah, obviously you don't't take any credit for it,
so I won't keep pushing it on.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
You, I think. I mean, the last thing I'll say
in that is, I really think bad weather has something
to do with it, because you have written. You think
about the United States, you have New Boston, you rarely
hear of like a hot, brilliant edgy comic from Tempe.
You know, like, it's not it's just I think being
stuck inside and in sort of crappy weather and observing
(13:13):
and having a lot of time with your own thoughts
and then watching TV creates that that flow out of you.
And you know, I think if you think about Monty
Python just as an example there, it's crappy weather. They
had no money, they had no support. They were these
guys that were very well educated and people thought they
(13:34):
were weird, so they just banded together and using amazing
brain power created Monty Python, which is incredible. So I
think that, to me is sort of the perfect soup
for how you get to places like that.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I feel like you were just throwing shade at Arizona Zone.
David Spade.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
I love Spade, but name your second favorite Arizona comic check.
You can't do it, Okay, Next topic.
Speaker 6 (14:01):
Garry Shanling. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
He moved there though he doesn't count.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Are you guys sponsored by the State of Arizona? Tours
on board?
Speaker 6 (14:11):
Exactly? Comedy clubs in Arizona?
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Kiss that goodbye, Joe.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
You both of you, I know, are huge sports fans.
Give me a sense from your own experience how sports
and forms even the slightest way, what you're doing day
to day with the Simpsons, or just your enjoyment of
the industry that you're in.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
Well, I am a very i'd say deep sports fan.
Of course, during football season, I think I do five
fantasy teams and pick Rob and I have been in
a Pickham league for a long time together.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
You're Canadian.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Who's your team local?
Speaker 6 (14:52):
Well, when we were growing up in Calgary, we used
to get channels from Washington State, so Seahawks fan, but
as you know, once you get into fantasy football, you've
corrupted yourself horribly and you can't be a fan to
anybody anymore. So my my favorite fan is my wallet.
My favorite team is my wallet, and just trying to win,
which I never do, but I love it. And then
(15:13):
right now, like I'm deep in the hockey playoffs, we're
in a bit of a moral quandary right now because
we were from Calgary, which despises the city of Edmonton.
But Edmonton is the last Canadian team and they're playing Florida,
which is maybe the worst American place further to be
a hockey team, So we're kind of being forced to
cheer for the Oilers. But I am as a patriot.
(15:35):
And then at work, everyone's betting on sports all the time.
Another thing I'll just throw in the pile. I wrote
a book with Dan Patrick, your old colleague from ESPN
about football that I really enjoyed. So I'm I'm deep
in sports as much as I can be outside of work,
and love it in every capacity.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
I to that, Oh sorry, I'll add to that that.
You know, I started Gracie Films as a company that
produces the Simpson So I started there a long time ago,
and even as a naive pearl clutching Canadian lad, I
was stunned at the level of sports gambling and just
gambling that happens at that company, like numbers that are shocking,
(16:14):
but people that were very into it and still do it,
and bookies and the whole thing. And even they have
a thing called the Grazy Pool which has been going
on for twenty plus years. Joel and I have participated
in it, but that's the least serious level of sports
gambling they do, and that is a serious pool to
get in. So if you're easily scared, I would avoid
(16:39):
grazy films when it comes to gambling. But if you
love sports, it's a great place to be. And the
Simpson's great because there's so many sports fans.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
But just to throw one last thing, Sorry, Chad, I
see you and you're either about to throw up or
to talk either way either or welcome. But I was
gonna say, like it's writers rooms are like eight to
ten people stuck in a room all day for anywhere
from eight to sometimes fifteen hours. I mean, it's inevitable
that you if it's a lot of people that are
(17:07):
into sports, there's going to be a lot of bets
coming out of that environment.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I was gonna say, gambling and comedy though, goes hand
in hand chat like most especially in my line of work.
A lot of comedians who I've met in my life,
especially when I was living in Vegas, was all because
of sports betting, and they'll be in the books and
they'll be like, hey, you got to come meet this guy,
and you go over there, and again that's how I
met Norm McDonald. This guy was a notorious Gambley who
(17:32):
lived in the book.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
And you know, that's.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Someone that I, you know, ran into and I knew
right away. People told me, do not tell him you're
a fan or that you enjoy his work. It will
be a much better experience and from him. I've done
that with every comedian I've ever met with that and
they all love betting. I think it's the rush day chase,
the same thing that kind of get on stage.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
And what you know I.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Would love to know about the Simpsons writers is when
they're predicting these Super Bowls, is there something behind it?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Right?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Are they trying to speak into existence with their own
bets or is that just once again just by luck.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
You know, I think at some point we can all
tell who the favorites are in a season, so you
can make it somewhat of a prediction of You know,
if I said, narrow it down to five teams that
could be in the super Bowl, you'd probably be right
on three or two of them. So it's mostly luck.
What gets freaky Sometimes we've actually got the score right
things like that. So that is just that is pure luck.
(18:26):
But Simon as a professional better. I say, bet on
everything you see on The Simpsons, because they're all going
to come true. You got nothing, yep.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I want to know how we get into the Gracie
Films pool. It feels like exactly the kind of pool
we'd want to be in, Simon.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
It's a substantial I'm happy to ask. It's a substantial investment.
At the beginning of the season you are playing against
it's all with the spread, and there are some people
in the pool use extra resources and outside sources for
their information. But the great thing about it is that
(19:10):
if you win a week or you win the whole pot,
somebody will deliver fresh cash to your location. And when
I say fresh cash, it is unused bills that are
perfectly crisp in an envelope to your location of choice,
and that thrill is it's got nice payouts. But if
you happen to win, you will have somebody pull up
in a Manila envelope with a Manilla envelope of cash
(19:33):
that looks incredible, and that that's the moment you want
to savor.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Let's say Chad knows my favorite competitions in America attacks
free competition.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
So yes, exactly right now, do.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
You guys remember the gold Sheet, Simon? Is that still around?
The gold Sheet?
Speaker 1 (19:49):
It's not around anymore. We actually tried to buy it
when I was at ESPN, and it's sort of it's
just not really a thing anymore. It's just not it's
not necessary right now given the way the world is.
But why do you say?
Speaker 6 (20:05):
A guy that Rob and I both have worked with,
and a wonderful guy and an incredible Simpsons writer and
legendary and really great guy. He was a avid reader
of the gold Sheet and Avid Better. I won't reveal
his name, but he one time bet I'm going to say,
forty thousand dollars on a presidential election and lost. But anyhow,
(20:26):
he's the real He was a real deep reader of
the gold Cheat I remember even like preseason football, him
telling me like, that's where you make all your money
is in preseason football. And I never believed that then
and still don't believe it now. But he was a
He would have the gold cheat in front of him
all the time.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Well, I will just add to the depravity of the
Simpsons and gambling where I won't say a name, but
there was a person there who made a lot of
money and basically placed two bets on the color of
the gatorade that would be splashed on a coach and
bet against themselves on the color that They were covering
every possible color of gatorade and were rooting basically against
(21:05):
themselves hoping for this color, knowing that they couldn't win
because they spread the money out too much on the gatorade.
But there's definitely enthusiasm for cash free earnings at that show.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, my favorite gatorade story is Jared Lorenzen, who you
guys might remember was a three hundred pound quarterback at Kentucky. Yes,
and he made it to the NFL. He was a
backup for the Giants when they made it to the
Super Bowl and against the Patriots, And I feel like
(21:39):
it was the second Super Bowl, and before the game,
which happened to be in Arizona, he was on the
field and he texted all of his friends back in
Kentucky the color of the gatorade on both sidelines. So
he wasn't telling them which team he thought was gonna
(22:00):
win or giving them anything other than if you think
the Patriots are gonna win, this is the color of
the gatorade. If you think the Giants are gonna win,
this is the color of the gatorade. And it's gotten
to the point where that and the national anthem, like,
how have you guys not done a national anthem controversy
with a famous singer and the betting on that as
(22:23):
an episode.
Speaker 6 (22:25):
You may have predicted it. The part I took of
that whole story. That's sad is that there's only one
color of gatorade on each sideline, Like teams could afford
a variety, a smorgas board of different gatorades. We don't
know which one's gonna be dumped. But it's sad to
think that they just commit to yellow or blue or
orange or whatever.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
I have a touchdown.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I do have a Simpson question that you know this
is just something you would know because it's something you
have to be inside if this is true or not.
I'm obviously grew up south Park fan, Simpsons fan, never
liked Family Guy. The South Park episode with the manatees
pushing the balls to make a family gapisode. Is it
true you guys sent them a bottle of was it
(23:07):
champagne or wine?
Speaker 6 (23:09):
I don't believe that's true. Oh, I mean we love
that episode. They have another episode which maybe is the
same one where they did Simpsons did it? So Simpsons
did it? Yeah, yeah, which we have a really good
relationship with south Park and shockingly to send many people
pretty much with Family Guy now as well.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, because to me, like like Bill Hayter, a guy
who does work for south Park, he felt like he
was like a Simpsons guy, and that you can really
see his style. You can tell he just grew up
on Simpsons and he's taken a lot of that to
South Park. I just to me, that was one of
their best hires ever. Where it's it's like that's a
match made and heaven where again the influence of Simpsons
(23:47):
and it's on comedy the same thing with SNL. It's
it changed everything and there's little pieces of all this comedy,
in all this new comedy. So yeah, I just had
to ask that question because that's like, as a south
Park man, I always wondered, Okay, the south Park and
Simpsons is actually cool. So I love to hear that
you guys are actually you guys like you to.
Speaker 6 (24:04):
We love those guys. And Bill Hayter's been a voice
on the show a bunch of times and is amazing incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Is there a South Park Simpson's Family Guy pool that
exists and so maybe we can start one?
Speaker 6 (24:20):
Well, forgive me, Rob, I'm talking more than I should,
but we do this thing at the Simpsons, which is
equally sad. But we do a fantasy football league for
summer box office, so we auction off movies. You can.
We have one hundred dollars fictional money, and you bid
on the movies that we divide into lots, and big
movies get split into thirds or quarters or half, depending
on how big we think they are. But that idea
(24:42):
is internal to the Simpsons, has been going on for
twenty years. But then I've heard that Family Guy and
maybe South Park have taken on that idea and have
done it themselves.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Internally, I feel like, you guys are much bigger gamblers
than I had any sense of it before, And now
I understand. Like when I'm hanging out with Rob and
it's the middle of the football season and I'm staying
at his house and I land at you know, seven
(25:14):
o'clock and it's ten o'clock East Coast time, and I'm
at his house and I'm having dinner and I'm falling asleep,
but he keeps asking me questions about who I like
for the weekend. It's all starting to make sense now.
Speaker 6 (25:27):
Well.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
I also when when Rad Chad shows up and stays
at his Hollywood mansion, We're so excited that you're here,
but also you know everything, So whether it's the fantasy
pool that win or just some insane situation like what's
happening with Aaron Rodgers, now like it's you are honestly
(25:49):
the only person that I feel can make sense of
a lot of ridiculous situations. So like Dak Prescott, you go,
why aren't the Cowboys drafting X Y? Do they really like?
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Dak?
Speaker 4 (26:01):
Like You're the only guy I can go to to
get the answers. But at the same time, there's all
this weekly drama where you go, you wonder like the
Bengals a few years ago when they were hot, It's like,
do you think they can keep the heat on and
get to the super Bowl and win it? Because it's
so out of the blue that you're talking about the
Bengals and the super Bowl. So you are the guy
(26:22):
that I go to for everything. And sometimes it's connected
to the fantasy League that Joel and Iron, and sometimes it.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Isn't Simon's here that I am the guy.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
He's the guy I was gonna ask Bob.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Is Chad the best house guf guest ever? Is it
like he eats barely anything, maybe uses the bathroom twice.
Bets made him perfect every morning after he weeks up.
He's just easy going?
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Is We love it when Chad is here? Our son
loves Chad. They we have photo documentation of them partying
for years and years and years. But when Rad Chad
is in town, we are very, very very excited.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Now Chad only takes three beers and he's in bed
by nine pm.
Speaker 6 (27:04):
It's it's good, so true.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
We love it.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Do you guys? Do you guys? Have you guys thought
about Super Bowl futures already? Is there a Gracie films
pool that takes advantage of Super Bowl futures. Joel, do
you have a position that you've taken that you would
like to share.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
I hate the season long bats. I need the quick hits,
like I hate thinking like, oh, will the Giants win
more or less than nine games a year? So no,
I don't. There's no future discussion. I'm sure again, like
I said, we could all talk about which teams we
think will be back this year, but I've I have
no official financial position, all right.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Also, the Simpsons, and like every writer's room that I've
ever been, they're certainly a handful of rabbit gamblers, one
or two that have a big problem. But you're sitting
in a room forever and you've got phones now before
you didn't have phones, and people are then naturally check
out scores or they're going to do online gambling, and
so that just leads to filling in the gaps between
(28:06):
pitching on a story where you start talking about gambling
and football season especially. But I just think it's only increased.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, and everyone's got a runner now, right, even if
you're in a state that doesn't have it. You know
a guy in the state that does that can do
something for you? And I was gonna say, if you're
gonna make one futures bet Joe, are you in.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
La for work? Yeah? Yep, dude.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Throw throw a little either on the rams of the
forty nine ers, get get involved in California a little
bit and.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
Do a band. I don't have the patience. I need it.
I need it Bath. I was gonna say you better
and forget it better and forget it. People bet like
on stuff like what time the show runner will let
us leave. We'll bet on if someone has to go
out of the room and prepare like ten jokes for
one spot in the script, we will bet on which
of the ten. We bet the other day on a
guy we work with this loves to get tattoos, And
(28:52):
someone came in and presented five tattoos, only one of
which was real, and we bet on which tattoo was
the real one. The answer he got it on his wrist.
It says no les because he lost his rolelex, so
it says no Lex on.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
His When you were doing the he did a Treehouse
of Horrors episode where Homer went to vote. It was
Barack Obama John McCain. This presage a lot of freaking chaos.
Explain what happened in the episode and obviously how it
(29:27):
predicted more and more chaos in the voting world.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
Well, I hate to keep going back. I think it's
just like you see these trends that are obvious, right
where like obviously you know jerrymandering of voting districts and stuff,
and you can just tell there's going to be voting
chaos in our future, and you know, people restricting people's
rights to votes and all that stuff. So all that
stuff was bubbling, I believe with that one and with
many other times, like it takes nine months to make
(29:57):
an episode of The Simpsons, so a lot of times
we don't do really topical stuff. But I think in
that case we literally held it or prepared like multiple
versions and then just slotted in the most likely one
at the last minute of who was going to be
on the ballot. We've done that a few times where
we just because we can't risk it to the very
last minute. So I mean, again, I guess I'm answering
(30:19):
my first question. It was just that idea that all
that stuff was in the water already, that idea of
what will happen to elections in voting chaos, we probably
got a little bit lucky. But then just even if
you're talking about sipping names on the ballot, I think
that was just literally waiting till the Friday before it
aired on the Sunday.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, and then since then, of course, there have been
nearly billion dollars in payments.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
For the.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Libel of voting machine irregularities. Some nice job nailed that one.
Speaker 6 (30:55):
And I've made like half of that billion, so it's
worked out pretty well for me.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
But I also feel like when you're doing these things,
it's almost like you're sitting in the room and when
you're not betting on tattoos and jokes and you know
your NFL pools, you're sitting there and you're thinking. And
this feels very much in line with how comedy writers
would think. What is the worst thing, the darkest thing,
(31:22):
the most outrageous thing that can happen, and let's write
that into existence? Is that ever the framework for the
starting or a starting point for an episode or a conversation?
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Yeah, Rob, you want to answer that, you've guessed, Well.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
I'll let Jole answer the specific Simpsons things, but I'll
give you two very fast examples that I witnessed Back
in the wild times of the late nineties and early
two thousands, there were two different well known television shows
that they would make very serious bets, one of which
was could a PA eat five cans? The large cans
(31:58):
of Heinz Binzel you know story. So it's like when
you go to the market, there's the Hines big beans,
and then there's the super Family size. So they started
throwing cash on the table if the PA could eat
these cans of beans. So cutting to the chase, the
PA did it. They weren't doing any work. It took hours,
and the PA was choking down and people kept throwing
(32:19):
more money on it, and I think on the table
was like twenty five thousand dollars in cash, which is
why they had that their pocket is crazy. So now
the PA, he wanted to win because he was gonna
get a big cut. And then somebody, after the PAD
got the last spoonful of beans down, said I'm going
to double the pot if he doesn't crap his pants
in the next hour, and the PA literally ran outside
(32:41):
and ran towards a hill near Warner Brothers Studios where
this was happening. He had to go to the bathroom
so badly. He wasn't even thinking where's the bathroom. He
just ran straight towards a hill and ed machine gun
diarrhea all over this hill. But then the next argument
was does that count because he was off property? Like
there was such depravity going on with this, it was
(33:03):
like does it count? Somebody has to go up the
hill to make sure it's his diarrhea. So there's levels
and levels of insanity. And then the other.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
Story is a beautiful tree grows on that hill, thanks
for that dirhea that we all.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Have a mighty diarrhea oak. Yeah, And so then the
the last one in one sentence is there was a
room that I was in where the showrunner had a
problem with some powdered medication that he enjoyed inhaling, and
people made bets on which part of his body would
fall off first, and it was a lot of money,
(33:38):
and the winner was his septum. So they go dark
and make a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yes, I was actually saying, like first for an episode
for ideas.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Oh, I'm so sorry, just edit those oats.
Speaker 6 (34:00):
It to you, you know, if you can get to
a funny, dark place, like yeah, we all sometimes think
of where do you end up? But then we gotta
have to kind of get there in a funny dark way.
So yeah, sometimes thinking of a bleak, you know, apocalyptic nightmare.
If as long as we can get there in an interesting,
funny way, We've done that many many times.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Well, that is like a very similar simon you were
saying it before, Like there is a mindset and a
sort of character trait where gamblers and comedy writers live
in a very dark space. Like the bigger the risk,
the less your expectation is that you will succeed, the
(34:43):
more you are planning that the other side of this
is going to be miserable, and you're willing to live
in that misery. Comedy writing is as big a risk
as betting. Like Rob, you go down from Canada, You're
not thinking, I'm going to end up having this beautiful
life here thing and I just want to be funny.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
I've never thought I could be funny. But yes, I
think it's a risk because you're you are deciding when
to speak, and if you speak, you hope what you
say is received well and is funny, and otherwise you
shut down. But then you in your head, you're like
you can't be quite too long because I'm gonna get fired,
so I need to speak again, and then you just
the cycle continues, and yeah, it has its own challenges.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah, I think Rob's nail It two where you don't
even know what's funny until you actually say it, or
and like give other people's reactions to it, right, Because
that's that's the challenging part with comedy. It's it's all subjective.
And yes, as someone that does love dark comedy, you know,
I'll laugh at really easy, lame jokes all the time,
Like even jokes that miss are some of my favorite jokes.
(35:51):
So it's like, you know, it is all random, and
you know, I view it as you know, we were
talking a little about here with the Simpsons. It's like
I would love what's the highest rate you guys ever got?
Speaker 6 (36:02):
Do you ever get?
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Like was it?
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Why?
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Fourteen? Like what's what's the limit you can push it?
Now that we have presidents cursing on national television, Like
is there a limit?
Speaker 6 (36:10):
Now there's a I don't even know what ratings are anymore,
like like ratings are anymore. But you know, we're sort
of bound a little bit by the constraints of the
show that it's established over forty years or thirty years,
but we've you know, we've stretched as society's appetite for
all that stuff is stretched. But like we had an
(36:31):
episode once where March said BFD like big fucking deal
and Fox bleeped the F like just the letter F
was offensive in that in that context. So and then
we're doing an episode now with like a we've been
told we can't show Homer's butt anymore, and like, you know,
stuff like that. So like the world is changing and
we're just kind of dodging, and you know, it's always
(36:52):
lawyers trying to protect themselves. But I don't know what
the ratings are anymore, and no one seems to care.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Also, right right, my last time this question, it's it's
a stupid conspiracy plot for the pig. What is it
deal with that fucking pig? Is there something deep behind
it or is it just spider pig walking on the ceiling.
Speaker 6 (37:11):
That is one of the things that I think has
shocked everybody so much that it talk about a pig
with some of someone's digestive problems. There's a perfect play
into that. But yeah, in the movie, they just put
the pig and then like that spider pig joke. I
think if you when you heard that pitch, it sounds
like that's a pretty easy lame joke, but that has
like registered and resonated so strong that everybody spider pig
(37:33):
and people love spider pig. And in the writer's room
there's a spider pig hanging from the ceiling, and like
that's just one of those things where you just didn't
know how big it would be and it seemed like
a pretty easy half joke to start with. But whatever
reason people love that and the deal with it is
just we don't know. And but God bless it.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
You know, this makes total sense now, simon the way
you just described it. I feel like being in a
writer's room, Rob and Joel. It's a little bit like
you're chasing you know, you lose a bet? All right,
How quickly can I get the next jer joke out
there to see if I can get the win versus?
Speaker 6 (38:14):
All right?
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Do I hold back? Do I want to keep my
powder dry? Do I need to build my bank roll?
Like when you're in the room, Joe, you start, is
there that anxiety that sweat, that energy that you feel
that is very similar oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (38:30):
Like what Rob said was you could have been talking
about me. Like I didn't speak for the first six months,
and then I was told if I don't start talking,
I'm going to be fired because you're so nervous. And
then at some point you have to pitch, which is
just really exposing yourself pretty raw, and it's a laugh
or it's not a laugh. But then you quickly just
realize that everybody next to you is doing the same
thing over and over and over again. So you know,
(38:51):
we're all sort of gambling where the stakes are pretty
low unless you get on a really really bad streak
where you don't have anything in for maybe a year,
and then you get fired. But yeah, you've got to
just keep throwing stuff out there. But I was very
intimidated at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
My favorite Larry David's story in SNL is that he
kept getting the shit taking off the board, and every
day he'd go and they'd take it off. He goes
another great day at the office, perfect, just perfect. I
love that story. Just he lived for failure and that's
why you know he's one of the greatest comedic minds
ever lived.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's all like the same with gambling.
Like you said, it's especially if you're on a live
action show that has an audience. To me, the highest
pressure is when you're shooting in front of the audience
on a Friday night and you're on the floor in
a joke tanks. You have seconds to rush over to
the showrunner and pitch a fix while the showrunner and
(39:42):
the cast and the crew are there and the audience.
And the worst thing is if you're pitch tanks because
especially if it gets to the actors and it sucks,
it's like you cannot find a corner small enough to
hide in, but you got to go back and stick
your face in the wood chipper again the next time
it happens. So it's really that's part of the fun
(40:03):
of it. But at the same time, it's like, this
is my opening. I've got to make it, and it's
better to try than to be silent.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Well do you remember, for both of you the first
time sitting in this kind of environment when you had
a pitch or a joke and it worked and you
felt that rush like, Okay, I've got one on the board.
Speaker 6 (40:28):
Joe, you first, like I said, I really went the
first few months without talking and then I was told
I have to start pitching, So I can't even tell
you the first joke I got on the show. We
used to do this thing where we'd send people off.
Everyone get stuck on, like, we can't find a joke here,
so you idiot, go write ten or thirty and come
back and pitch them to us and hopefully one will fit.
(40:49):
So I was that guy. And the setup was that
Marge was mad at Homer and he said, what do
I do to fix this? And someone said take her
to dinner or maybe a show. And then my joke was,
what about Benny Hannah? Where dinner is the show? And
that was the joke that got on the show, and
that broke my broke the eye.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
So that was thirty years later.
Speaker 6 (41:11):
You're still with that joke. Shockingly, I'm still here.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
I know legacy joke.
Speaker 6 (41:16):
I know what about you.
Speaker 4 (41:19):
I would say as far as being on staff of
a show, it was probably the Ben Stiller show. We
wanted to We were on the Fox network and they
absolutely hated our guts and we hated them. So we
were doing sort of a parody of a shitty Fox show,
and I wanted to be introduced by the crappiest mascot ever.
So it was somebody in a ratty Fox costume and
(41:41):
Ben was like, well, what do we call this guy?
And the worst joke ever, I said, what if we
call him Foxy? The Fox Network Fox? And then I
realized that the words came out of my mouth that
is the hackiest pitch of all time. And Ben just
fell over laughing, and in my mind I was like,
why are you laughing? That's terrible, But then I just
shut my mouth and let him enjoy it and sort
(42:03):
of had one moment of comfort where it felt like, Okay,
that one was a winner for whatever reason.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
Rob, I want you to tell people and this is
my last sort of inside Simpson's prediction because this one
is so outrageous. It can't just be Joel like this
had already happened. So it was in the ether and
we just played off it. There's no way possible. Rob,
(42:31):
you are the inspiration for the artwork for Milhouse. Explain
what happened and how that came to be, because Milhouse
has one of the greatest predictions in Simpson's history.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Well, I cannot claim any credit for this, but the
quick version of the story was back when the show started,
they wanted to use an animation company to save money,
and so they were waiting for the designs. The designs
came back horribly and they needed to restart them, but
(43:11):
they wanted to send references so they could copy the
exact look they did want. So one of the amazing
writers on the show called me in one day and
he said, I want to show you something. He showed
me a drawing of Millhouse and he goes, this is you.
And because of the way that I look, and I
would wear shorts and a T shirt all the time,
and how Gian knows, he explained that they had been
(43:33):
taking photos of real people and sending those to Korea
so that they couldn't screw up the artwork. That they
just would mimic the photos and make that character. So
I was delighted that that happened. I get zero money
from it. But they just took images of actual people
and they were doing it to save the animation process
(43:55):
because they were so far behind. And then as a
tag to that, if you look at the early Simpsons
episodes of the artwork on the fridge that is supposed
to be of the kids is the horrible animation that
the Koreans are sending back because it looks like a
terrible kids drawing.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
All right, So in twenty ten, Milhouse predicts who's going
to win the Nobel Prize, and what I can only
imagine was a very high stakes pool at school for
Milhouse and Homer. He predicted I can't even say the
(44:31):
guy's name, Banked Holmstrom from MIT as the winner of
the two thousand prize of the twenty ten Nobel Prize.
He also had in his pool Ben Faringa as a
(44:52):
possible winner in twenty ten. In twenty sixteen, Joel, both
of them won the no Bel Prize for their respective fields.
Explain yourself.
Speaker 6 (45:07):
You'll see a gun approach from off screen as I
start talking again. This is that they're aside from gamblers,
the other thing the Simpsons is famous for is a
lot of nerds and super smart people. And my guess is,
because I can't recall any of this, that these people
literally researched who are the leading candidates, just like I'm
(45:28):
sure Simon would, and like the odds and looked forward
on who's I don't know what the prizes were for
chemistry or literature or whatever, but I'm sure, they researched
these guys and who are the leading candidates or working
on developments, and took a swing. And again the names
are so obscure to morons like me that it sounds
funny when it's on TV regardless. And then I didn't
(45:49):
until this moment even though that they'd actually won. So
I have got some bets to collect myself. You deny,
There's a lot of a lot of stuff happens here,
and I just you can't keep trying of everything, you know.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
That's like Simon when we were betting on the Pope
and we came so close because we had it like
all figured out that it was going to be someone
who wasn't of the top five candidates, who sort of
had the right profile, and instead of the guy from Chicago,
we went with the guy from France and we were
(46:23):
right there.
Speaker 4 (46:23):
We could have written a Simpsons episode. Yeah, how could
you not pick the guy from Chicago?
Speaker 1 (46:28):
I know, I felt terrible about it after it happened,
and we've discussed it aggressively.
Speaker 6 (46:34):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Our claim to fame is though we did Luckily the
guy we had on didn't mention his name, so we
weren't a total loss, but it was just it was
right there for me and Chat we totally missed on it.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
I got very locked in on the guy from France.
I got locked in. I felt like a I just did.
I never thought it would be an American, but I
thought everything the American had was the right profile. And
it wasn't going to be one of the guys who
went in, because it's never the person that everybody thinks
has the shortest odds as they go into the conclave.
(47:08):
So to me, it had to be someone who was
in Europe, had experience working in communities where immigration and
immigrants were a big factor, who could help expand the church,
and this guy in France because immigration in France was
a lot of it was Africans moving to France, and
(47:30):
so he had connections to the African community. Like Robbi
went deep and I just didn't see the dude with
the background in Peru getting into that spot.
Speaker 6 (47:42):
You know, a lot of the cardinals were making calls
from inside the Vatican tipping off better. It's like you
guys on the outside, so it's kind of think, next,
here's the color of the smoke.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
Yeah, I didn't I didn't get any of those calls
Joel amazingly so yeah, Joe Cone, Rob Cone, Super Team Canada.
Everybody go watch it on YouTube. Everybody watch it on Crave.
You guys crushed. Thanks for coming on The Favorites today.
Simon and I will return with our next episode of
(48:11):
The Favorites Tuesday on the Action Network YouTube page. Downloads
some Spotify Apple Pods wherever you get your pods, Rate, review,
subscribe and leave us fot stars. Say whatever you want
feedback as a gift until next time.
Speaker 4 (48:21):
I Love you.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Action Network reminds you please gamble responsibly.
Speaker 6 (48:33):
If you or someone you care about has a gambling problem,
help is available twenty four to seven at one eight
hundred gambler
Welcome to the Favorites, the podcast part of the Volume
Podcast Network. I am Chad Millman of the Action Network Today.
I'm joined as always by my cost my companion, my
compadre might BFF professional better Signmon Hunter els Imon.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Chad, what a show we have today, brother dude.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
We got very special guests for a very special show.
We like to figure out on this show what is
going to happen in the future. I don't think any
medium has been better at predicting what is going to
(00:54):
happen in the future than The Simpsons, which now only
is that the longest running scripted primetime show in American
television history, it has been epically successful in predicting the
most outrageous things, from voting scandals, which one of our
(01:18):
guests predicted many many years ago, to Olympic curling gold,
whether it's sports, whether it's politics, whether it's polluted waters
and three eyed fishes. The Simpsons have been predicting it
for years, so I wanted to dig in on how
(01:41):
they do it. Here to discuss it. Two fellas happen
to be brothers. Both have worked on The Simpsons, one
still does. They are industry veterans, Canadian Royalty, one of
them has He's directed one of the best documentaries on
(02:03):
Canadian sense of humor in history. It's a pretty long list,
but they are fantastic looking duo. Rob Cone is a
close buddy. He's been writing and directing his way through
Hollywood for years on some of the biggest and best
shows you've all watched, including The Simpsons, Wonder Years, Big Bang,
my personal favorite, Somebody Somewhere, which made every top ten
(02:25):
list of the best shows last year. He also won
an Emmy for his work on The Ben Stiller Show.
If you're a Simpson super fan, he was the screenwriter
of one of the shows most beloved episode, Flaming Mo's
season three. His brother, Joel has been with The Simpsons
for almost thirty years. He's an executive producer of the show.
(02:48):
He's written nearly forty episodes, some of which we are
going to talk about today because they presaged some of
the most outrageous moments literally in history, including a very
special ar tree House of Horrors episode that are still
relevant today. Like me, Joel is an author, which is
the hardest thing to do, much harder than a long
(03:11):
successful career in Hollywood. His delightful book How to Lose
a Marathon is available wherever books are sold. The Boys,
the Coen Brothers have a new animated show. It's Hilarious
Super Team Canada, produced with Will Arnette. He also does
a podcast. People may have heard of it. It's available
on CraveTV and on YouTube. Fellas, it's been a long preamble,
(03:36):
I apologize, but you've been around forever and there's a
lot of stuff you've been doing, so welcome to the show.
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Rob When the Way to the World has got you
down and you want to end your life, bills to pay,
a dead end job, and problems with the wife, but
don't throw in the tower, because there's a place right
down the block where you can drink your misery away.
Speaker 4 (04:05):
That flame.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
When the.
Speaker 5 (04:14):
Conform you by happiness, it is just a flaming go away.
Happiness is just a flaming move away.
Speaker 4 (04:27):
Say hello, Hello, Chad, this is the sound of my
impressed voice.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Thank you, Joel, can you be equally impressed?
Speaker 6 (04:35):
It would be hard to match that level of enthusiasm,
but hello as well.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
All right, I got to ask, first off, Joel, you've
been there forever at this point, why does this keep happening?
How do you guys continue to predict the future.
Speaker 6 (04:52):
We're getting into it right now.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Let's just do it.
Speaker 6 (04:54):
Let's just want to hear it. Let me tell everyone
the sad truth, and then I will try to salvage
it with a little bit of hope at the end.
How about that. So most of the time when people
say Simpsons predicted it, what has happened is the Simpsons
are a bunch of hacks and we have merely reported
on something that has already happened. But the world travels
(05:15):
in cycles. So one of the things that people talk
about recently or semi recently is Simpsons predicted COVID. And
they show this clip that was aired after SARS. If
you guys remember Stars, one of our great viruses, and
we did a joke on the show where like the
news caster Kent Brockman is saying this Asian flu blah
blah blah blah blah. So people show that clip and
(05:37):
they're like, Simpsons predicted COVID. In fact, we are like
probably three years after the fact of SARS and just
doing it a sort of a joke or a take
on SARS. So a lot of times it's just that
cycle of life that looks like there's a prediction. Add
to that now the ability of everybody in the world
to use AI and crappy animation and people are creating
(05:59):
memes and little video clips that look like a prediction after,
of course the fact that it happened. The third thing
I'll throw on the bummer pile is like, for example,
there was these horrific fires in Los Angeles. There's all
these things. Simpsons predicted the fire. Well, we have eight
hundred episodes. Shockingly, we have had one with a fire
in it, so you can find a clip of a
(06:19):
fire and then say Simpsons brick at the fire. So
those are the bumbers. The good news is the Dave
I started the day after this aired. But one of
our writers, Dan Graney, who Rob knows certainly, was writing
an episode and he had to think of it was
in the future. I forget the name of the episode,
but it's in the future when Lisa becomes president and
replaces the former president and had to name who the
(06:40):
president was. Dan's first idea was President Depp because he thought, oh,
Johnny Depp. Then he thought, no, no, that's too viable. It
has to be the most ridiculous, idiotic name you could
ever put in there, So he chose President Trump, which
that was in two thousand that aired, So that was
a clear prediction. And as you've mentioned with all the
last thing, I say, with eight hundred episodes, we occasionally
(07:02):
do stuff that then does prove prescient, like we've predicted
Olympic curling success and World Cup scores and Super Bowl teams,
et cetera. So long winded answer to say, often it's
either super laziness and a little bit of luck.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Well, look, I know Simon is a he's a Halloween
special lover. And Joel, that's one of your many specialties.
The sports angle on this and I know someone wants
to ask about it because it's also contains one of
the greatest and most relevant prescient predictions that has happened
(07:40):
in The Simpsons. But the sports angle is fascinating to
me because everyone in that room is clearly a sports fan,
and you guys have predicted so many things. You know,
as I used to run USP in the magazine and
in twenty thirteen, I think you guys did FIFA corruption
and you had a French version of ESP in the
(08:02):
magazine that had the cover of you know, French of
a FIFA corruption and a year later that's happening, right,
And so where does the sports fandom come in to
all this?
Speaker 6 (08:17):
Tons and tons of sports fans. I wouldn'tay everybody's a
sports fan, but it's a lot of guys with nothing better,
didn't look at their phones all day. So there are
a lot of sports fans. And then of course sports,
just like anything else in society, trickles in for predictions.
But like FIFA corruption, I probably could have told you
in nineteen eighty three that there was FIFA corruption, right,
(08:38):
so that we did a story about it is not
so shocking. So Anya, we just do a lot of
sports episodes. I just had an episode on a couple
weeks ago that sort of mirrored the Otani betting scandal.
I don't know if you guys heard about that. It
wasn't covered very much in the media, but so we
had a Macedonian baseball player who gets corrupted and starts
betting on sports as well. So that was on a
few weeks ago. You know, So lots and lots of
(09:01):
sports fans. I guess is a half answer to the
full question, Senate, would you like to yeah.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
Rob it?
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Rob In my mind you grew up in the greatest
generation of comedy and friend, not talking to Marria, I'm
talking Canadian comedy. You had Jim Carrey nor McDonald and
even before that. You know, it's a bunch of legends
where you know more in short, to me, one of
the greatest comedic minds ever. What made that little pocket
(09:31):
of Canadians so fucking funny? It's like crazy, like even
all these years later, like I go back and I
watch old norm it's so hard for comedy to hold
up thirty years later. And that's how you know these
people are away out of their time, like you're a
part of it, Like you are part of this group
of people that put themselves out there in a unique way.
(09:52):
What do you think makes Canada produce these heavyweight comedy styles.
Speaker 4 (09:58):
Well, you're giving me if there's more than a one
hundred percent, you're giving me more than that credit or
something that I really didn't do, because I agree with you.
You know, every country mostly has their own unique sense
of humor. And obviously if you're in the United States
or Britain or Canada, it's more mainstream just because of
(10:18):
the way they make TV shows. But I do agree
with you. It's Canada, you know, for its relatively small population,
has generated these hitters in comedy forever. And there's a
million theories, but I think it's really because we're stuck
between England and the United States, and we are watching
(10:39):
the US and observing them, and we're sort of watching
Britain and we know we're kind of British, kind of American,
but we're also naval gazers to a degree, and that
internalized thought process creates this weird mish mash that is
this observational comedy. And there's no real theory, but I
(11:01):
will say I agree with you. I mean, to me,
SCTV is the greatest sketch show and sketch group of
all time, and Python is a very very tight tie
with them, and then everything else is a big drop off.
They're good, but they're never going to be that level.
And I think so much of it is just being
insane because you have terrible weather and you're stuck inside
(11:22):
and you're envious of your neighbors and you just kind
of get this distorted, passive, aggressive style of comedy. So
I think that's why Canada has created that. And then
you have people like Jim Carrey, who is obviously brilliant,
or Martin Shorter, any of the STTV people that when
they go to the States, they're viewed as these exotic,
(11:44):
weird aliens that happen to live on the land mask
that's connected to you. But their view on things is
so different and they're great mimics. And I think that's
what's led to the Canadian style of comedy.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
And I love the old theory of the cold and
the harsh weather, just like in England. When you come
over here, it makes you need to laugh about life.
And that's why, you know, I always joke I go
back and visit family just about how even a local
guy at the pub could be the funniest person you've
ever met in your entire life when I go back
to England. And I've had that with Canadians, Like I've
had a lot of friends who've come down here and
(12:19):
I feel like, what you're talking about, they just don't know.
They're just so different, especially to Americans, even though you
know they are not even that far away. And yeah,
I love you know, Mike Myers talks about it. Where
you know Canadians they'll be talking and be like oh,
and he died the other day, so sad, and it's
just like really funny, but they don't know they're being funny.
There's you know, throw these type of things in and yeah,
(12:40):
for someone like you, I just thought it was interesting
where you really grew up in the perfect.
Speaker 4 (12:45):
Era of that type of comedy.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
And yeah, obviously you don't't take any credit for it,
so I won't keep pushing it on.
Speaker 4 (12:50):
You, I think. I mean, the last thing I'll say
in that is, I really think bad weather has something
to do with it, because you have written. You think
about the United States, you have New Boston, you rarely
hear of like a hot, brilliant edgy comic from Tempe.
You know, like, it's not it's just I think being
stuck inside and in sort of crappy weather and observing
(13:13):
and having a lot of time with your own thoughts
and then watching TV creates that that flow out of you.
And you know, I think if you think about Monty
Python just as an example there, it's crappy weather. They
had no money, they had no support. They were these
guys that were very well educated and people thought they
(13:34):
were weird, so they just banded together and using amazing
brain power created Monty Python, which is incredible. So I
think that, to me is sort of the perfect soup
for how you get to places like that.
Speaker 1 (13:48):
I feel like you were just throwing shade at Arizona Zone.
David Spade.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
I love Spade, but name your second favorite Arizona comic check.
You can't do it, Okay, Next topic.
Speaker 6 (14:01):
Garry Shanling. That's pretty good.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
He moved there though he doesn't count.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Are you guys sponsored by the State of Arizona? Tours
on board?
Speaker 6 (14:11):
Exactly? Comedy clubs in Arizona?
Speaker 4 (14:13):
Kiss that goodbye, Joe.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
You both of you, I know, are huge sports fans.
Give me a sense from your own experience how sports
and forms even the slightest way, what you're doing day
to day with the Simpsons, or just your enjoyment of
the industry that you're in.
Speaker 6 (14:39):
Well, I am a very i'd say deep sports fan.
Of course, during football season, I think I do five
fantasy teams and pick Rob and I have been in
a Pickham league for a long time together.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
You're Canadian.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
Who's your team local?
Speaker 6 (14:52):
Well, when we were growing up in Calgary, we used
to get channels from Washington State, so Seahawks fan, but
as you know, once you get into fantasy football, you've
corrupted yourself horribly and you can't be a fan to
anybody anymore. So my my favorite fan is my wallet.
My favorite team is my wallet, and just trying to win,
which I never do, but I love it. And then
(15:13):
right now, like I'm deep in the hockey playoffs, we're
in a bit of a moral quandary right now because
we were from Calgary, which despises the city of Edmonton.
But Edmonton is the last Canadian team and they're playing Florida,
which is maybe the worst American place further to be
a hockey team, So we're kind of being forced to
cheer for the Oilers. But I am as a patriot.
(15:35):
And then at work, everyone's betting on sports all the time.
Another thing I'll just throw in the pile. I wrote
a book with Dan Patrick, your old colleague from ESPN
about football that I really enjoyed. So I'm I'm deep
in sports as much as I can be outside of work,
and love it in every capacity.
Speaker 4 (15:51):
I to that, Oh sorry, I'll add to that that.
You know, I started Gracie Films as a company that
produces the Simpson So I started there a long time ago,
and even as a naive pearl clutching Canadian lad, I
was stunned at the level of sports gambling and just
gambling that happens at that company, like numbers that are shocking,
(16:14):
but people that were very into it and still do it,
and bookies and the whole thing. And even they have
a thing called the Grazy Pool which has been going
on for twenty plus years. Joel and I have participated
in it, but that's the least serious level of sports
gambling they do, and that is a serious pool to
get in. So if you're easily scared, I would avoid
(16:39):
grazy films when it comes to gambling. But if you
love sports, it's a great place to be. And the
Simpson's great because there's so many sports fans.
Speaker 6 (16:46):
But just to throw one last thing, Sorry, Chad, I
see you and you're either about to throw up or
to talk either way either or welcome. But I was
gonna say, like it's writers rooms are like eight to
ten people stuck in a room all day for anywhere
from eight to sometimes fifteen hours. I mean, it's inevitable
that you if it's a lot of people that are
(17:07):
into sports, there's going to be a lot of bets
coming out of that environment.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
I was gonna say, gambling and comedy though, goes hand
in hand chat like most especially in my line of work.
A lot of comedians who I've met in my life,
especially when I was living in Vegas, was all because
of sports betting, and they'll be in the books and
they'll be like, hey, you got to come meet this guy,
and you go over there, and again that's how I
met Norm McDonald. This guy was a notorious Gambley who
(17:32):
lived in the book.
Speaker 6 (17:33):
And you know, that's.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Someone that I, you know, ran into and I knew
right away. People told me, do not tell him you're
a fan or that you enjoy his work. It will
be a much better experience and from him. I've done
that with every comedian I've ever met with that and
they all love betting. I think it's the rush day chase,
the same thing that kind of get on stage.
Speaker 6 (17:51):
And what you know I.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
Would love to know about the Simpsons writers is when
they're predicting these Super Bowls, is there something behind it?
Speaker 3 (17:59):
Right?
Speaker 2 (17:59):
Are they trying to speak into existence with their own
bets or is that just once again just by luck.
Speaker 6 (18:05):
You know, I think at some point we can all
tell who the favorites are in a season, so you
can make it somewhat of a prediction of You know,
if I said, narrow it down to five teams that
could be in the super Bowl, you'd probably be right
on three or two of them. So it's mostly luck.
What gets freaky Sometimes we've actually got the score right
things like that. So that is just that is pure luck.
(18:26):
But Simon as a professional better. I say, bet on
everything you see on The Simpsons, because they're all going
to come true. You got nothing, yep.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I want to know how we get into the Gracie
Films pool. It feels like exactly the kind of pool
we'd want to be in, Simon.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
It's a substantial I'm happy to ask. It's a substantial investment.
At the beginning of the season you are playing against
it's all with the spread, and there are some people
in the pool use extra resources and outside sources for
their information. But the great thing about it is that
(19:10):
if you win a week or you win the whole pot,
somebody will deliver fresh cash to your location. And when
I say fresh cash, it is unused bills that are
perfectly crisp in an envelope to your location of choice,
and that thrill is it's got nice payouts. But if
you happen to win, you will have somebody pull up
in a Manila envelope with a Manilla envelope of cash
(19:33):
that looks incredible, and that that's the moment you want
to savor.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
Let's say Chad knows my favorite competitions in America attacks
free competition.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
So yes, exactly right now, do.
Speaker 6 (19:45):
You guys remember the gold Sheet, Simon? Is that still around?
The gold Sheet?
Speaker 1 (19:49):
It's not around anymore. We actually tried to buy it
when I was at ESPN, and it's sort of it's
just not really a thing anymore. It's just not it's
not necessary right now given the way the world is.
But why do you say?
Speaker 6 (20:05):
A guy that Rob and I both have worked with,
and a wonderful guy and an incredible Simpsons writer and
legendary and really great guy. He was a avid reader
of the gold Sheet and Avid Better. I won't reveal
his name, but he one time bet I'm going to say,
forty thousand dollars on a presidential election and lost. But anyhow,
(20:26):
he's the real He was a real deep reader of
the gold Cheat I remember even like preseason football, him
telling me like, that's where you make all your money
is in preseason football. And I never believed that then
and still don't believe it now. But he was a
He would have the gold cheat in front of him
all the time.
Speaker 4 (20:42):
Well, I will just add to the depravity of the
Simpsons and gambling where I won't say a name, but
there was a person there who made a lot of
money and basically placed two bets on the color of
the gatorade that would be splashed on a coach and
bet against themselves on the color that They were covering
every possible color of gatorade and were rooting basically against
(21:05):
themselves hoping for this color, knowing that they couldn't win
because they spread the money out too much on the gatorade.
But there's definitely enthusiasm for cash free earnings at that show.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Yeah, my favorite gatorade story is Jared Lorenzen, who you
guys might remember was a three hundred pound quarterback at Kentucky. Yes,
and he made it to the NFL. He was a
backup for the Giants when they made it to the
Super Bowl and against the Patriots, And I feel like
(21:39):
it was the second Super Bowl, and before the game,
which happened to be in Arizona, he was on the
field and he texted all of his friends back in
Kentucky the color of the gatorade on both sidelines. So
he wasn't telling them which team he thought was gonna
(22:00):
win or giving them anything other than if you think
the Patriots are gonna win, this is the color of
the gatorade. If you think the Giants are gonna win,
this is the color of the gatorade. And it's gotten
to the point where that and the national anthem, like,
how have you guys not done a national anthem controversy
with a famous singer and the betting on that as
(22:23):
an episode.
Speaker 6 (22:25):
You may have predicted it. The part I took of
that whole story. That's sad is that there's only one
color of gatorade on each sideline, Like teams could afford
a variety, a smorgas board of different gatorades. We don't
know which one's gonna be dumped. But it's sad to
think that they just commit to yellow or blue or
orange or whatever.
Speaker 4 (22:43):
I have a touchdown.
Speaker 2 (22:46):
I do have a Simpson question that you know this
is just something you would know because it's something you
have to be inside if this is true or not.
I'm obviously grew up south Park fan, Simpsons fan, never
liked Family Guy. The South Park episode with the manatees
pushing the balls to make a family gapisode. Is it
true you guys sent them a bottle of was it
(23:07):
champagne or wine?
Speaker 6 (23:09):
I don't believe that's true. Oh, I mean we love
that episode. They have another episode which maybe is the
same one where they did Simpsons did it? So Simpsons
did it? Yeah, yeah, which we have a really good
relationship with south Park and shockingly to send many people
pretty much with Family Guy now as well.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Yeah, because to me, like like Bill Hayter, a guy
who does work for south Park, he felt like he
was like a Simpsons guy, and that you can really
see his style. You can tell he just grew up
on Simpsons and he's taken a lot of that to
South Park. I just to me, that was one of
their best hires ever. Where it's it's like that's a
match made and heaven where again the influence of Simpsons
(23:47):
and it's on comedy the same thing with SNL. It's
it changed everything and there's little pieces of all this comedy,
in all this new comedy. So yeah, I just had
to ask that question because that's like, as a south
Park man, I always wondered, Okay, the south Park and
Simpsons is actually cool. So I love to hear that
you guys are actually you guys like you to.
Speaker 6 (24:04):
We love those guys. And Bill Hayter's been a voice
on the show a bunch of times and is amazing incredible.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
Is there a South Park Simpson's Family Guy pool that
exists and so maybe we can start one?
Speaker 6 (24:20):
Well, forgive me, Rob, I'm talking more than I should,
but we do this thing at the Simpsons, which is
equally sad. But we do a fantasy football league for
summer box office, so we auction off movies. You can.
We have one hundred dollars fictional money, and you bid
on the movies that we divide into lots, and big
movies get split into thirds or quarters or half, depending
on how big we think they are. But that idea
(24:42):
is internal to the Simpsons, has been going on for
twenty years. But then I've heard that Family Guy and
maybe South Park have taken on that idea and have
done it themselves.
Speaker 1 (24:51):
Internally, I feel like, you guys are much bigger gamblers
than I had any sense of it before, And now
I understand. Like when I'm hanging out with Rob and
it's the middle of the football season and I'm staying
at his house and I land at you know, seven
(25:14):
o'clock and it's ten o'clock East Coast time, and I'm
at his house and I'm having dinner and I'm falling asleep,
but he keeps asking me questions about who I like
for the weekend. It's all starting to make sense now.
Speaker 6 (25:27):
Well.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
I also when when Rad Chad shows up and stays
at his Hollywood mansion, We're so excited that you're here,
but also you know everything, So whether it's the fantasy
pool that win or just some insane situation like what's
happening with Aaron Rodgers, now like it's you are honestly
(25:49):
the only person that I feel can make sense of
a lot of ridiculous situations. So like Dak Prescott, you go,
why aren't the Cowboys drafting X Y? Do they really like?
Speaker 6 (26:01):
Dak?
Speaker 4 (26:01):
Like You're the only guy I can go to to
get the answers. But at the same time, there's all
this weekly drama where you go, you wonder like the
Bengals a few years ago when they were hot, It's like,
do you think they can keep the heat on and
get to the super Bowl and win it? Because it's
so out of the blue that you're talking about the
Bengals and the super Bowl. So you are the guy
(26:22):
that I go to for everything. And sometimes it's connected
to the fantasy League that Joel and Iron, and sometimes it.
Speaker 1 (26:29):
Isn't Simon's here that I am the guy.
Speaker 4 (26:32):
He's the guy I was gonna ask Bob.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
Is Chad the best house guf guest ever? Is it
like he eats barely anything, maybe uses the bathroom twice.
Bets made him perfect every morning after he weeks up.
He's just easy going?
Speaker 4 (26:46):
Is We love it when Chad is here? Our son
loves Chad. They we have photo documentation of them partying
for years and years and years. But when Rad Chad
is in town, we are very, very very excited.
Speaker 2 (27:01):
Now Chad only takes three beers and he's in bed
by nine pm.
Speaker 6 (27:04):
It's it's good, so true.
Speaker 4 (27:06):
We love it.
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Do you guys? Do you guys? Have you guys thought
about Super Bowl futures already? Is there a Gracie films
pool that takes advantage of Super Bowl futures. Joel, do
you have a position that you've taken that you would
like to share.
Speaker 6 (27:24):
I hate the season long bats. I need the quick hits,
like I hate thinking like, oh, will the Giants win
more or less than nine games a year? So no,
I don't. There's no future discussion. I'm sure again, like
I said, we could all talk about which teams we
think will be back this year, but I've I have
no official financial position, all right.
Speaker 4 (27:43):
Also, the Simpsons, and like every writer's room that I've
ever been, they're certainly a handful of rabbit gamblers, one
or two that have a big problem. But you're sitting
in a room forever and you've got phones now before
you didn't have phones, and people are then naturally check
out scores or they're going to do online gambling, and
so that just leads to filling in the gaps between
(28:06):
pitching on a story where you start talking about gambling
and football season especially. But I just think it's only increased.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
Yeah, and everyone's got a runner now, right, even if
you're in a state that doesn't have it. You know
a guy in the state that does that can do
something for you? And I was gonna say, if you're
gonna make one futures bet Joe, are you in.
Speaker 6 (28:24):
La for work? Yeah? Yep, dude.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Throw throw a little either on the rams of the
forty nine ers, get get involved in California a little
bit and.
Speaker 6 (28:31):
Do a band. I don't have the patience. I need it.
I need it Bath. I was gonna say you better
and forget it better and forget it. People bet like
on stuff like what time the show runner will let
us leave. We'll bet on if someone has to go
out of the room and prepare like ten jokes for
one spot in the script, we will bet on which
of the ten. We bet the other day on a
guy we work with this loves to get tattoos, And
(28:52):
someone came in and presented five tattoos, only one of
which was real, and we bet on which tattoo was
the real one. The answer he got it on his wrist.
It says no les because he lost his rolelex, so
it says no Lex on.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
His When you were doing the he did a Treehouse
of Horrors episode where Homer went to vote. It was
Barack Obama John McCain. This presage a lot of freaking chaos.
Explain what happened in the episode and obviously how it
(29:27):
predicted more and more chaos in the voting world.
Speaker 6 (29:35):
Well, I hate to keep going back. I think it's
just like you see these trends that are obvious, right
where like obviously you know jerrymandering of voting districts and stuff,
and you can just tell there's going to be voting
chaos in our future, and you know, people restricting people's
rights to votes and all that stuff. So all that
stuff was bubbling, I believe with that one and with
many other times, like it takes nine months to make
(29:57):
an episode of The Simpsons, so a lot of times
we don't do really topical stuff. But I think in
that case we literally held it or prepared like multiple
versions and then just slotted in the most likely one
at the last minute of who was going to be
on the ballot. We've done that a few times where
we just because we can't risk it to the very
last minute. So I mean, again, I guess I'm answering
(30:19):
my first question. It was just that idea that all
that stuff was in the water already, that idea of
what will happen to elections in voting chaos, we probably
got a little bit lucky. But then just even if
you're talking about sipping names on the ballot, I think
that was just literally waiting till the Friday before it
aired on the Sunday.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Yeah, and then since then, of course, there have been
nearly billion dollars in payments.
Speaker 6 (30:43):
For the.
Speaker 1 (30:47):
Libel of voting machine irregularities. Some nice job nailed that one.
Speaker 6 (30:55):
And I've made like half of that billion, so it's
worked out pretty well for me.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
But I also feel like when you're doing these things,
it's almost like you're sitting in the room and when
you're not betting on tattoos and jokes and you know
your NFL pools, you're sitting there and you're thinking. And
this feels very much in line with how comedy writers
would think. What is the worst thing, the darkest thing,
(31:22):
the most outrageous thing that can happen, and let's write
that into existence? Is that ever the framework for the
starting or a starting point for an episode or a conversation?
Speaker 6 (31:34):
Yeah, Rob, you want to answer that, you've guessed, Well.
Speaker 4 (31:37):
I'll let Jole answer the specific Simpsons things, but I'll
give you two very fast examples that I witnessed Back
in the wild times of the late nineties and early
two thousands, there were two different well known television shows
that they would make very serious bets, one of which
was could a PA eat five cans? The large cans
(31:58):
of Heinz Binzel you know story. So it's like when
you go to the market, there's the Hines big beans,
and then there's the super Family size. So they started
throwing cash on the table if the PA could eat
these cans of beans. So cutting to the chase, the
PA did it. They weren't doing any work. It took hours,
and the PA was choking down and people kept throwing
(32:19):
more money on it, and I think on the table
was like twenty five thousand dollars in cash, which is
why they had that their pocket is crazy. So now
the PA, he wanted to win because he was gonna
get a big cut. And then somebody, after the PAD
got the last spoonful of beans down, said I'm going
to double the pot if he doesn't crap his pants
in the next hour, and the PA literally ran outside
(32:41):
and ran towards a hill near Warner Brothers Studios where
this was happening. He had to go to the bathroom
so badly. He wasn't even thinking where's the bathroom. He
just ran straight towards a hill and ed machine gun
diarrhea all over this hill. But then the next argument
was does that count because he was off property? Like
there was such depravity going on with this, it was
(33:03):
like does it count? Somebody has to go up the
hill to make sure it's his diarrhea. So there's levels
and levels of insanity. And then the other.
Speaker 6 (33:11):
Story is a beautiful tree grows on that hill, thanks
for that dirhea that we all.
Speaker 4 (33:15):
Have a mighty diarrhea oak. Yeah, And so then the
the last one in one sentence is there was a
room that I was in where the showrunner had a
problem with some powdered medication that he enjoyed inhaling, and
people made bets on which part of his body would
fall off first, and it was a lot of money,
(33:38):
and the winner was his septum. So they go dark
and make a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
Yes, I was actually saying, like first for an episode
for ideas.
Speaker 4 (33:51):
Oh, I'm so sorry, just edit those oats.
Speaker 6 (34:00):
It to you, you know, if you can get to
a funny, dark place, like yeah, we all sometimes think
of where do you end up? But then we gotta
have to kind of get there in a funny dark way.
So yeah, sometimes thinking of a bleak, you know, apocalyptic nightmare.
If as long as we can get there in an interesting,
funny way, We've done that many many times.
Speaker 1 (34:20):
Well, that is like a very similar simon you were
saying it before, Like there is a mindset and a
sort of character trait where gamblers and comedy writers live
in a very dark space. Like the bigger the risk,
the less your expectation is that you will succeed, the
(34:43):
more you are planning that the other side of this
is going to be miserable, and you're willing to live
in that misery. Comedy writing is as big a risk
as betting. Like Rob, you go down from Canada, You're
not thinking, I'm going to end up having this beautiful
life here thing and I just want to be funny.
Speaker 4 (35:05):
I've never thought I could be funny. But yes, I
think it's a risk because you're you are deciding when
to speak, and if you speak, you hope what you
say is received well and is funny, and otherwise you
shut down. But then you in your head, you're like
you can't be quite too long because I'm gonna get fired,
so I need to speak again, and then you just
the cycle continues, and yeah, it has its own challenges.
Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah, I think Rob's nail It two where you don't
even know what's funny until you actually say it, or
and like give other people's reactions to it, right, Because
that's that's the challenging part with comedy. It's it's all subjective.
And yes, as someone that does love dark comedy, you know,
I'll laugh at really easy, lame jokes all the time,
Like even jokes that miss are some of my favorite jokes.
(35:51):
So it's like, you know, it is all random, and
you know, I view it as you know, we were
talking a little about here with the Simpsons. It's like
I would love what's the highest rate you guys ever got?
Speaker 6 (36:02):
Do you ever get?
Speaker 4 (36:02):
Like was it?
Speaker 3 (36:03):
Why?
Speaker 2 (36:03):
Fourteen? Like what's what's the limit you can push it?
Now that we have presidents cursing on national television, Like
is there a limit?
Speaker 6 (36:10):
Now there's a I don't even know what ratings are anymore,
like like ratings are anymore. But you know, we're sort
of bound a little bit by the constraints of the
show that it's established over forty years or thirty years,
but we've you know, we've stretched as society's appetite for
all that stuff is stretched. But like we had an
(36:31):
episode once where March said BFD like big fucking deal
and Fox bleeped the F like just the letter F
was offensive in that in that context. So and then
we're doing an episode now with like a we've been
told we can't show Homer's butt anymore, and like, you know,
stuff like that. So like the world is changing and
we're just kind of dodging, and you know, it's always
(36:52):
lawyers trying to protect themselves. But I don't know what
the ratings are anymore, and no one seems to care.
Speaker 2 (36:57):
Also, right right, my last time this question, it's it's
a stupid conspiracy plot for the pig. What is it
deal with that fucking pig? Is there something deep behind
it or is it just spider pig walking on the ceiling.
Speaker 6 (37:11):
That is one of the things that I think has
shocked everybody so much that it talk about a pig
with some of someone's digestive problems. There's a perfect play
into that. But yeah, in the movie, they just put
the pig and then like that spider pig joke. I
think if you when you heard that pitch, it sounds
like that's a pretty easy lame joke, but that has
like registered and resonated so strong that everybody spider pig
(37:33):
and people love spider pig. And in the writer's room
there's a spider pig hanging from the ceiling, and like
that's just one of those things where you just didn't
know how big it would be and it seemed like
a pretty easy half joke to start with. But whatever
reason people love that and the deal with it is
just we don't know. And but God bless it.
Speaker 1 (37:51):
You know, this makes total sense now, simon the way
you just described it. I feel like being in a
writer's room, Rob and Joel. It's a little bit like
you're chasing you know, you lose a bet? All right,
How quickly can I get the next jer joke out
there to see if I can get the win versus?
Speaker 6 (38:14):
All right?
Speaker 1 (38:14):
Do I hold back? Do I want to keep my
powder dry? Do I need to build my bank roll?
Like when you're in the room, Joe, you start, is
there that anxiety that sweat, that energy that you feel
that is very similar oh yeah.
Speaker 6 (38:30):
Like what Rob said was you could have been talking
about me. Like I didn't speak for the first six months,
and then I was told if I don't start talking,
I'm going to be fired because you're so nervous. And
then at some point you have to pitch, which is
just really exposing yourself pretty raw, and it's a laugh
or it's not a laugh. But then you quickly just
realize that everybody next to you is doing the same
thing over and over and over again. So you know,
(38:51):
we're all sort of gambling where the stakes are pretty
low unless you get on a really really bad streak
where you don't have anything in for maybe a year,
and then you get fired. But yeah, you've got to
just keep throwing stuff out there. But I was very
intimidated at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
My favorite Larry David's story in SNL is that he
kept getting the shit taking off the board, and every
day he'd go and they'd take it off. He goes
another great day at the office, perfect, just perfect. I
love that story. Just he lived for failure and that's
why you know he's one of the greatest comedic minds
ever lived.
Speaker 4 (39:21):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's all like the same with gambling.
Like you said, it's especially if you're on a live
action show that has an audience. To me, the highest
pressure is when you're shooting in front of the audience
on a Friday night and you're on the floor in
a joke tanks. You have seconds to rush over to
the showrunner and pitch a fix while the showrunner and
(39:42):
the cast and the crew are there and the audience.
And the worst thing is if you're pitch tanks because
especially if it gets to the actors and it sucks,
it's like you cannot find a corner small enough to
hide in, but you got to go back and stick
your face in the wood chipper again the next time
it happens. So it's really that's part of the fun
(40:03):
of it. But at the same time, it's like, this
is my opening. I've got to make it, and it's
better to try than to be silent.
Speaker 1 (40:12):
Well do you remember, for both of you the first
time sitting in this kind of environment when you had
a pitch or a joke and it worked and you
felt that rush like, Okay, I've got one on the board.
Speaker 6 (40:28):
Joe, you first, like I said, I really went the
first few months without talking and then I was told
I have to start pitching, So I can't even tell
you the first joke I got on the show. We
used to do this thing where we'd send people off.
Everyone get stuck on, like, we can't find a joke here,
so you idiot, go write ten or thirty and come
back and pitch them to us and hopefully one will fit.
(40:49):
So I was that guy. And the setup was that
Marge was mad at Homer and he said, what do
I do to fix this? And someone said take her
to dinner or maybe a show. And then my joke was,
what about Benny Hannah? Where dinner is the show? And
that was the joke that got on the show, and
that broke my broke the eye.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
So that was thirty years later.
Speaker 6 (41:11):
You're still with that joke. Shockingly, I'm still here.
Speaker 4 (41:14):
I know legacy joke.
Speaker 6 (41:16):
I know what about you.
Speaker 4 (41:19):
I would say as far as being on staff of
a show, it was probably the Ben Stiller show. We
wanted to We were on the Fox network and they
absolutely hated our guts and we hated them. So we
were doing sort of a parody of a shitty Fox show,
and I wanted to be introduced by the crappiest mascot ever.
So it was somebody in a ratty Fox costume and
(41:41):
Ben was like, well, what do we call this guy?
And the worst joke ever, I said, what if we
call him Foxy? The Fox Network Fox? And then I
realized that the words came out of my mouth that
is the hackiest pitch of all time. And Ben just
fell over laughing, and in my mind I was like,
why are you laughing? That's terrible, But then I just
shut my mouth and let him enjoy it and sort
(42:03):
of had one moment of comfort where it felt like, Okay,
that one was a winner for whatever reason.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
Rob, I want you to tell people and this is
my last sort of inside Simpson's prediction because this one
is so outrageous. It can't just be Joel like this
had already happened. So it was in the ether and
we just played off it. There's no way possible. Rob,
(42:31):
you are the inspiration for the artwork for Milhouse. Explain
what happened and how that came to be, because Milhouse
has one of the greatest predictions in Simpson's history.
Speaker 4 (42:49):
Well, I cannot claim any credit for this, but the
quick version of the story was back when the show started,
they wanted to use an animation company to save money,
and so they were waiting for the designs. The designs
came back horribly and they needed to restart them, but
(43:11):
they wanted to send references so they could copy the
exact look they did want. So one of the amazing
writers on the show called me in one day and
he said, I want to show you something. He showed
me a drawing of Millhouse and he goes, this is you.
And because of the way that I look, and I
would wear shorts and a T shirt all the time,
and how Gian knows, he explained that they had been
(43:33):
taking photos of real people and sending those to Korea
so that they couldn't screw up the artwork. That they
just would mimic the photos and make that character. So
I was delighted that that happened. I get zero money
from it. But they just took images of actual people
and they were doing it to save the animation process
(43:55):
because they were so far behind. And then as a
tag to that, if you look at the early Simpsons
episodes of the artwork on the fridge that is supposed
to be of the kids is the horrible animation that
the Koreans are sending back because it looks like a
terrible kids drawing.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
All right, So in twenty ten, Milhouse predicts who's going
to win the Nobel Prize, and what I can only
imagine was a very high stakes pool at school for
Milhouse and Homer. He predicted I can't even say the
(44:31):
guy's name, Banked Holmstrom from MIT as the winner of
the two thousand prize of the twenty ten Nobel Prize.
He also had in his pool Ben Faringa as a
(44:52):
possible winner in twenty ten. In twenty sixteen, Joel, both
of them won the no Bel Prize for their respective fields.
Explain yourself.
Speaker 6 (45:07):
You'll see a gun approach from off screen as I
start talking again. This is that they're aside from gamblers,
the other thing the Simpsons is famous for is a
lot of nerds and super smart people. And my guess is,
because I can't recall any of this, that these people
literally researched who are the leading candidates, just like I'm
(45:28):
sure Simon would, and like the odds and looked forward
on who's I don't know what the prizes were for
chemistry or literature or whatever, but I'm sure, they researched
these guys and who are the leading candidates or working
on developments, and took a swing. And again the names
are so obscure to morons like me that it sounds
funny when it's on TV regardless. And then I didn't
(45:49):
until this moment even though that they'd actually won. So
I have got some bets to collect myself. You deny,
There's a lot of a lot of stuff happens here,
and I just you can't keep trying of everything, you know.
Speaker 1 (46:01):
That's like Simon when we were betting on the Pope
and we came so close because we had it like
all figured out that it was going to be someone
who wasn't of the top five candidates, who sort of
had the right profile, and instead of the guy from Chicago,
we went with the guy from France and we were
(46:23):
right there.
Speaker 4 (46:23):
We could have written a Simpsons episode. Yeah, how could
you not pick the guy from Chicago?
Speaker 1 (46:28):
I know, I felt terrible about it after it happened,
and we've discussed it aggressively.
Speaker 6 (46:34):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (46:35):
Our claim to fame is though we did Luckily the
guy we had on didn't mention his name, so we
weren't a total loss, but it was just it was
right there for me and Chat we totally missed on it.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
I got very locked in on the guy from France.
I got locked in. I felt like a I just did.
I never thought it would be an American, but I
thought everything the American had was the right profile. And
it wasn't going to be one of the guys who
went in, because it's never the person that everybody thinks
has the shortest odds as they go into the conclave.
(47:08):
So to me, it had to be someone who was
in Europe, had experience working in communities where immigration and
immigrants were a big factor, who could help expand the church,
and this guy in France because immigration in France was
a lot of it was Africans moving to France, and
(47:30):
so he had connections to the African community. Like Robbi
went deep and I just didn't see the dude with
the background in Peru getting into that spot.
Speaker 6 (47:42):
You know, a lot of the cardinals were making calls
from inside the Vatican tipping off better. It's like you
guys on the outside, so it's kind of think, next,
here's the color of the smoke.
Speaker 1 (47:51):
Yeah, I didn't I didn't get any of those calls
Joel amazingly so yeah, Joe Cone, Rob Cone, Super Team Canada.
Everybody go watch it on YouTube. Everybody watch it on Crave.
You guys crushed. Thanks for coming on The Favorites today.
Simon and I will return with our next episode of
(48:11):
The Favorites Tuesday on the Action Network YouTube page. Downloads
some Spotify Apple Pods wherever you get your pods, Rate, review,
subscribe and leave us fot stars. Say whatever you want
feedback as a gift until next time.
Speaker 4 (48:21):
I Love you.
Speaker 1 (48:29):
Action Network reminds you please gamble responsibly.
Speaker 6 (48:33):
If you or someone you care about has a gambling problem,
help is available twenty four to seven at one eight
hundred gambler
Hosts And Creators
Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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